Celibacy

Considered ^{[by whom? ]} that the vow of celibacy as such was widespread in the Church , both in the West and in the East, although there were few documents about this. The apostle Paul wrote that there is nothing wrong with marriage, but those who practice celibacy do better:

The Apostle Peter and the Apostle Philip were married. Concerning the presence of a wife, the Apostle Paul has various versions (see Apostle Paul ). According to Clement of Alexandria, the apostle Paul was married:

Clement disputes the Gnostics , all of whose teachers - from Marcion to Mani - saw in celibacy an indispensable condition for the life of a Christian Gnostic. According to them, having wives or husbands, or having sexual intercourse outside of marriage, cannot be considered a full member of the Christian Gnostic church, although it has the right to attend meetings of the Gnostics and listen to anything good there.

Celibacy for clergy was first enshrined in the rules of the Cathedral of Elvir (beginning of the 4th century ), which requires bishops, presbyters, deacons and subdeacons to be permanently excommunicated and even forgiven of death on their deathbed (rule 18).

In Orthodoxy

In Orthodoxy , however, as in the Eastern Catholic churches , marriage is allowed if its conclusion precedes the consecration to the deacon and priesthood, since in its attitude to marriage Orthodoxy is guided, first of all, by rule VI of the Ecumenical Council ^[2] :

Earlier, we realized that in the Roman Church, as a rule, it is betrayed that those who have been ordained deacon or presbyter are obligated not to communicate with their wives anymore: we, following the ancient rule of the Apostolic beautification and order, deign, so that the cohabitation of clergymen by law would continue to be inviolable, not at all breaking their union with their wives, and not depriving them of mutual union at a decent time. And tacos who are worthy of being ordained as subdeacon , or deacon, or presbyter , will not be an obstacle to raising such a degree of cohabitation with a legal spouse; and from him, at the time of delivery, no obligation is required that he refrain from legal communication with his wife; lest we be compelled in this way to offend God with the established, and at His coming blessed marriage. For the voice of the gospel cries out: that God combined, let man not part ( Matthew 19: 6 ). And the Apostle teaches: marriage is fair, and the bed unclean ( Heb. 13: 4 ).

The practice of ordaining the clergy in the Russian Orthodox Church, in the Russian Church, has its own concrete beginning in the person of Alexander Gorsky . His move to this completely new step for the Russian Church was Metropolitan Filaret , who wrote a treatise on examples of celibate ordinations that were in the Ancient Church and in later church history ^[3] .

Bishop candidates are elected solely from among the monks of the minor schema . In the Russian Orthodox Church , as in many other Local Orthodox churches, a bishop cannot be a nonmonomist, that is, bishops ordain exclusively from among archimandrites (the highest rank of monastic presbyters), but not from among celibate or a married white (i.e. non-religious) clergy . In other words, from among both celibate and married priests , archpriests and protopresbyters are not ordained as bishops. As an exception, a bishop's ordination of a celibate or widowed white priest is possible, but before that he should be tonsured in a small schema and elevated to archimandrites.

In Catholicism

The celibacy of Catholic priests was legalized in the Western Church during the era of Pope Gregory the Great (590-604), but became established de facto only by the 11th century (during the reign of Pope Gregory VII ) after the Gregorian reforms ^[4] . In the Eastern Church, celibacy rejected the Council of Troll (691–692), which was not recognized by Catholicism.

The vow of celibacy prescribes observance of chastity, the violation of which is considered as sacrilege. Priests are forbidden to marry or to be previously married. Void attempts to conclude a marriage made after being ordained , beginning with the deacon’s, are also declared invalid.

Celibacy of the clergy is dedicated to a separate paragraph (p. 16) of the decree of the Second Vatican Council on the ministry and life of elders “ Presbyterorum ordinis ”.

The Short Krakow Annals (ANNALES CRACOVIENSES BREVES) contain the following entry: “1197. Cardinal Peter the Second came to Poland, who decided to marry in front of the church and forbade priests to have wives . ”

In the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church, celibacy applies to bishops and priests , as well as most deacons . Married men could theoretically ordain small ordinances ( ordines minores ), or clergymen ordained in them could marry, but since for many centuries these degrees of church service were considered only as steps to the priesthood, this did not happen in practice. The clergy made a promise to live in celibacy upon initiation into the dignity of the subdeacon .

Pope Paul VI (1897-1978) abolished the small ranks (they were preserved only among the traditionalists), replacing them with the services of an acolyte and a reader, not related to the status of a cleric. He also reintroduced the institution of permanent deacons that disappeared in the Middle Ages (that is, deacons who are not going to become priests), including married men older than 25 years (in many countries this age has been increased by local church legislation) ^[4] .

As an exception, in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church, married men converted from Anglicanism and other branches of Protestantism are ordained to the holy sanctuary, where they performed the role of clergy, pastors , etc. (The Catholic Church does not recognize the validity of their priesthood, but they can accept the ordination) .

Compulsory celibacy does not apply to the clergy of Eastern Catholic churches , including Greek Catholics . Eastern Catholic priests are governed by their own canonical law (see the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches ) and have the right to be married if it was concluded before the clergyman accepted the priesthood.

The obligation of celibacy at the moment is the subject of active discussion. In the United States and Western Europe, some Catholics are inclined to approve of the abolition of compulsory celibacy for the "white" (non-religious) clergy of the Latin rite. Pope John Paul II strongly opposed the reform.

In Italy alone, over the past few years, for the sake of and because of marriage, they lost their rank, according to various sources, from six thousand to several tens of thousands of priests. ^[6]

In Protestantism

Anglicans and almost all Protestants prefer married priests.

• In ancient Rome, a vow of celibacy was given by servants of the cult of Vesta . Violators of the vow were buried alive.
• In Hinduism, celibacy can take the form of a temporary or lifelong rejection of sex for the sake of spiritual self-awareness and transcendental knowledge.
• In Buddhism, monks take vows of celibacy for the sake of spiritual growth and self-knowledge.
• In Judaism, a negative attitude toward celibacy is based primarily on a direct biblical order to multiply and multiply ( Genesis 1:28 ). Celibacy is also incompatible with the Jewish concept, according to which a man, if he is not married, was considered only as half of a human being. Judaism not only does not see in celibacy a means to attain holiness, but, on the contrary, considers celibacy an obstacle to personal cultivation. This is vividly illustrated by the term kiddushin (consecration), used to indicate the engagement ceremony as the first step to marriage, as well as the biblical indication that the high priest should be married ( Lev. 21:13 ). Unmarried people were not allowed to attend certain public and religious posts, for example, judges for serious criminal offenses (San. 36b). Jewish moralists defended strict self-control, and sometimes even a certain degree of asceticism, but did not encourage celibacy or any form of monasticism. The idea that there is something immoral in marriage was refuted by Nachmanides back in the 13th century. in a special treatise on this topic. The traditional Jewish view of marriage found its most distinct expression in the following provision of Shulchan Aruch : “Everyone is obliged to marry in order to fulfill their duty of procreation, and anyone who does not participate in procreation, as if shedding blood, belittles God's image and forces Shekhin to leave Israel ”(Eh. 1: 1). Tradition gives a religious court the right to force an unmarried man to marry after he is twenty years old. However, since the end of the Middle Ages, such coercion has not been practiced. ^[7]

• Skoptsy
• Shakers
• Vowed Virgin
• Sublimation (Psychology)

• Celibacy (Celibacy) // Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia. Volume 2. Edition of Petrograd. Appendix to the spiritual journal "Wanderer" for 1901.
• Celibacy // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Heid, Stefan. Celibacy in the Early Church: The Beginnings of a Discipline of Obligatory Continence for Clerics in East and West . - San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000 .-- P. 376. - ISBN 0-89870-800-1 .
• Brown, Gabrielle. The New Celibacy: Why More Men and Women Are Abstaining from Sex — and Enjoying It. - New York: McGraw-Hill , 1980 .-- ISBN 0-07-008430-0 .

• The biblical foundation of priestly celibacy
• The Reformation view of Celibacy
• HBO documentary film Celibacy